VacationSelector
The Hôtel du Palais, Biarritz
BiarritzThe Hôtel du Palais
Botero sculptures on Plaza Botero, Medellin
MedellinBotero sculptures on Plaza Botero

Photos: Biarritz by Lilipiapia, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped; Medellin by Steffen Schmitz, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Biarritz or Medellin?

Our verdict in twelve categories, each scored against the same fixed benchmark cities, and the climate month by month, so you can choose for your trip.

Choose Biarritz for

  • beaches
  • wellness
  • day trips

What lies behind each score is written up on Biarritz’s own page.

Choose Medellin for

  • prices
  • nightlife
  • culture and sights

What lies behind each score is written up on Medellin’s own page.

Scoreboard

Twelve categories on one fixed scale from 0 to 100. The shaded stretch is the gap between the two.

Beaches & swimming. Biarritz 68, Medellin 5: Biarritz leads by 63 points.
Food & drink. Biarritz 62, Medellin 58: Biarritz leads by 4 points.
Culture & sights. Biarritz 33, Medellin 42: Medellin leads by 9 points.
Nightlife. Biarritz 36, Medellin 76: Medellin leads by 40 points.
Nature & outdoors. Biarritz 74, Medellin 66: Biarritz leads by 8 points.
Day trips. Biarritz 80, Medellin 58: Biarritz leads by 22 points.
Good for families. Biarritz 62, Medellin 50: Biarritz leads by 12 points.
Getting around. Biarritz 58, Medellin 55: Biarritz leads by 3 points.
Shopping & style. Biarritz 42, Medellin 45: Medellin leads by 3 points.
Affordability. Biarritz 30, Medellin 80: Medellin leads by 50 points.
Live music & performing arts. Biarritz 38, Medellin 42: Medellin leads by 4 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Biarritz 64, Medellin 30: Biarritz leads by 34 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Biarritz and Medellin.

Your match

Pick a travel style or drag the sliders, and both match scores follow your weighting.

Biarritz
Best match
54match

Wins on beaches and wellness with your weighting.

Medellin
51match

Wins on prices and nightlife with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

Pick your month. The climate figures are measured averages, not a forecast.

Biarritz in July

24 °Cdaytime high
17 °Cnight-time low
97 mmrain in the month
7 hsunshine a day
21 °Csea
15 hdaylight a day

Medellin in July

29 °Cdaytime high
16 °Cnight-time low
133 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
No seasea
12 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300400JFMAMJJASOND
BiarritzMedellin

Where the figures come from

Medellin has no rain gauge within 25 km of the centre, so its rainfall comes from a gridded climate dataset read at the city rather than from a gauge further away.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Biarritz: 1999-2020 (sunshine 1991-2020, rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Biarritz (2.5 km from centre). Medellin: 1958-2025 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Medellin / Olaya Herrera (5.2 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureBiarritzMedellin
Official languageFrenchSpanish
CurrencyEuro (EUR)Colombian Peso (COP)
SocketsCE230 V, 50 HzAB110 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+1, UTC+2 in summerUTC-5
Emergency number112123
Elevation0 m1,405 m
Main airportBiarritz Pays Basque airport (BIQ)3 km from centre25 non-stop destinationsJose Maria Córdova International Airport (MDE)19 km from centre41 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year11 days19 days

By the numbers

MeasureBiarritzMedellin
City population26,2062,529,403
People per km²2,2406,644
Museums within 10 km814
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km20
Swim season, months above 21 °C2 months-

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Biarritz or Medellin somewhere new.

Browse every destination

Sources

Structured data from Wikidata (CC0). Weather data by Meteostat. Meteorological data provided by NOAA, DWD and others. Rainfall where no rain gauge is within 25 km is from the TerraClimate 1991-2020 climatology (Abatzoglou et al. 2018, Scientific Data), read at the city. Sea surface temperature from NOAA OISST v2.1, NOAA Physical Sciences Laboratory. Airport data from OurAirports (public domain). Tourism statistics from Eurostat, © European Union, reused under CC BY 4.0. Public holidays from Nager.Date (MIT). Non-stop route lists from the "Airlines and destinations" tables on English Wikipedia airport articles, by Wikipedia contributors, reused under CC BY-SA 4.0. Currency from the ISO 4217 register maintained by SIX, cross-checked against country data from GeoNames (CC BY 4.0). Price level from World Bank open data (PPP conversion factor for private consumption and official exchange rate), CC BY 4.0. Time zones from GeoNames (CC BY 4.0); clock offsets computed from the IANA time zone database. Daylight hours computed from each destination's latitude using the NOAA solar position algorithm. Exchange rates via Frankfurter, based on European Central Bank reference rates.

Category scores are our editorial verdict under rubric v3, each placed against the same fixed benchmark cities; the climate figures are measured. How the scores are set. Snapshot generated 2026-10-31. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.